Why do dyslexic students do worse at university?

By: Christopher Byrne.

The proportion of UK university students who are dyslexic has increased markedly in recent years, rising to around 5%. Yet there remains a significant dyslexia attainment gap: around 40% of dyslexic students achieve a 2.1 or above, compared to 52% of non-dyslexic students. Dyslexia is unrelated to intelligence, so why does this gap persist?

Unfortunately, outdated attitudes towards dyslexia among university staff prevail. Too many view it as something made up by middle-class “helicopter parents” to gain unfair advantages for their children entering university, and not the valid medical diagnosis that it actually is. Even where it is accepted as a condition rooted in an inability to match spoken sounds with their written forms, the accommodations made to level the playing field for dyslexic students are often inadequate.

Most universities do little else than allow dyslexic students extra time (usually around 25%) to complete their assessments and ensure that their work is “marked for content”. This means that markers are instructed to not penalise dyslexic students for poor presentation of their written work, such as spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. While such accommodations are helpful, they fail to take into account that dyslexic students can struggle with a wide range of commonplace tasks, such as reading, spelling, note-taking, organising essays, timekeeping, expressing ideas verbally, concentrating and using short-term memory.

So how do we close the dyslexia attainment gap? We need a determined effort on the part of UK universities to make their institutions more dyslexia-friendly across the board. Lecturers can help by thinking more carefully about the effectiveness of their teaching and assessment methods for all of their students. For example, how many university teachers are familiar with research showing that the reading accuracy of dyslexic students can be significantly improved by using fonts such as Helvetica, Courier and Arial?

Equally, dyslexic students indicated in a survey I recently carried out at the University of Exeter that they highly value being given teaching materials in advance of sessions, and not being overloaded with information. They also wanted variety in both teaching and assessment methods, access to marking criteria written in plain English and, most importantly of all, easy access to recordings of teaching sessions, so that they can digest teaching materials at a suitable pace.

Every year, students with undiagnosed dyslexia arrive at UK universities. The number of these missed diagnoses could be greatly reduced if institutions received support to cover the costs of professional dyslexia assessment. Clear procedures would enable lecturers to refer students they suspect have undiagnosed dyslexia for a timely dyslexia screening. Universities can also establish guidelines for teaching staff, so that there is greater awareness of their specific needs. They should be monitoring the implementation of action plans for dyslexic students to ensure that they receive necessary adjustments in all of their modules.

Given that dyslexia is a highly variable condition, and one better thought of as a continuum than a categorical diagnosis, it is not possible to specify in advance which accommodations individuals might need. What we do know is that promoting a wider range of accommodations will help level the uneven playing field for dyslexic students.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/dec/06/why-do-dyslexic-students-do-worse-at-university